Mobile communications devices have become an integral part of society over the last two decades. Indeed, more than eighty-two percent of Americans own a mobile communications device, for example, a cell phone device. Even further, international cell phone device penetration has reached 3.3 billion units. In other words, approximately half the world's population has a cell phone device. The typical cell phone device includes an antenna, and a transceiver coupled to the antenna. The transceiver and the antenna cooperate to transmit and receive communications signals with a network infrastructure, usually maintained by a cell phone provider. Although the first cell phone devices typically included only voice or limited short message service capabilities, the capabilities of cell phone devices have increased greatly over the last decade.
One desirable cell phone device feature is an integrated broadcast radio receiver, such as a frequency modulation (FM) radio receiver and an amplitude modulation (AM) radio receiver. Due to the size constraints of typical cell phones, it may be difficult to provide an effective internal broadcast radio antenna. An external broadcast radio antenna may be effective, but may reduce the aesthetic appeal of the cell phone device. Once approach to this drawback may include utilizing a typical wired headset, i.e. headphones, as the broadcast radio antenna. The typical wired headset includes a plurality of lines, such as stereo audio output lines, a microphone line, a ground line, and a connector comprising a plurality of contact rings.
Depending on the manufacturing standard of the wired headset, the contact rings on the connector of the wired headset may have varying arrangements. Typical cell phone devices that use the wired headset as a broadcast radio antenna may specifically couple the wireless broadcast receiver to the audio signal line for that purpose. One drawback to this approach may include degraded voice quality, such as noise, echo or the requirement of additional external or internal filtering components.